Round Barrow(s)

Miscellaneous

Three round barrows on Bathampton Downs. Pastscape descriptions:

Two southern barrows

ST 76696465 and ST 76766460

Two barrows, south east of Sham Castle,were noted by Rev.J.Skinner in the early 19th.C., as 20-30 feet in circumference and 2 feet high. One was ditched and had been excavated before 1821.(2). The easternmost was excavated in 1856 by the Rev.Scarth but no record of finds survives. Both were trial-excavated in 1904 by trenching and found to be of soil and rubble. No finds were made.

At ST 76692 64660 a circular mound 1.2 m high and at ST 76761 64607 a very similar mound 1.1 m. high. Neither has a visible ditch and both appear to be bowl barrows.

Northern barrow

A barrow, described by the Rev. J. Skinner in the early 19thc (2), as 60 paces in circumference and 4-5 feet high. It was ditched and mutilated by quarrying. Skinner noticed remains of inurned cremations in the quarry face on the west and in the barrow. The mound was further excavated in 1905 and found to comprise a mound of soil and rubble with a revetment wall 22 feet in diameter. Three inurned cremations were found in pits cut in the underlying rock and are now in Bath Museum with other potsherds, flint flakes, animal bones, etc., found in the excavation.